News Updates

Pondering last weekend’s U.S. presidential debate, Wynton Marsalis expressed surprise that anyone would be startled by the low level of discourse on display. Sunday’s town hall-style debate was notable for its vulgarity, vitriol and overall lack of class (at one point Donald Trump referred to Hillary Clinton as “the devil”). In Marsalis’s view, this merely reflects a contemporary American culture gone downhill in recent years.
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Throughout the Fall season, Jazz at Lincoln Center will celebrate the spirit of big band with five unique performances, including a Family Concert, featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis as well as young jazz stars on the rise. These special events will take place on every stage in the organization’s home, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and will highlight big band swing, high intensity battles, and the optimistic beat of the Swing Era that helped bring the country out of the Great Depression.
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How busy is Wynton Marsalis? So busy that the Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz trumpeter, composer and band leader had to skip the Sept. 22 White House ceremony honoring him and this year’s other National Medal of Arts and Humanities recipients. Instead, he was preparing for that night’s 2016/2017 season-opening concert of Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he has served as artistic director since its inception in 1988 and has collaborated with countless jazz greats, as well as with Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
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Monk, in answering the question “What’s happening Thelonious?” replied, “Everything is happening all the time, man.” Funny, but true. In our country alone, we swim a brimming sea of over 320 million people and roughly 200 billion points of view per second, but in the bowels of this cacophony there is startling commonality in our individuality.
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On October 28, 2016, Blue Engine Records will release its highly acclaimed inaugural title, Live in Cuba by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, as a deluxe vinyl box set. The box set—which features four LPs, an extensive booklet, and a full album download with a bonus, never-before-heard track, “Oo Na Ney,” is available now for preorder on Amazon.
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President Barack Obama today announced the distinguished recipients of the 2015 National Humanities Medal. The awardees include authors, a poet, physician, historian, chef, and a higher education program.
President Obama will award the 2015 National Humanities Medals in conjunction with the National Medal of Arts during a White House ceremony on September 22. First Lady Michelle Obama will attend. The ceremony will stream live at WH.gov/live.
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After finishing his lecture-performance at the Pulitzer Centennial Celebration at Harvard University on Saturday, jazz musician and educator Wynton Marsalis imparted a piece of wisdom to me: the Internet is not shortening our attention spans.
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